Perfect Reflection (20 page)

Ash shook her head out of the trance to
answer the man. “No, sir, this is my first trip, and it is
exquisite.” Ash couldn’t look at the men long without blushing so
she turned her head back to look at the lodge.

“Yes, she is.”

Ash didn’t think he was talking about the
lodge. She looked down and then up at the man. He winked at her
then both men started walking toward the front door of the lodge.
Ash turned around and walked to Jessie, who was unloading the
luggage. She pointed at her two pieces of luggage and told him
those were hers. “Yes, ma’am, I know. We will bring it in for you.
It’s too cold for you out here. You can go inside, and I will bring
your luggage in for you.”

Ash smiled at Jessie. “Thank you.”

“Yes, ma’am, your welcome. And, ma’am,
welcome to the Meadows.”

Ash turned around and walked up the stairs to
the lodge. She loved it. The large wraparound porch with all the
rocking chairs placed where anybody who sat in them could see the
mountains. Ash could see herself sitting outside early in the
morning, watching the sun come up while she drank a cup of coffee.
She could see the snow laying on the ground and breathing in the
crisp air as she rocked in the rocking chair. Ash noticed the
baskets lying beside the chairs that had blankets in them that
could be used to cover your legs with as you sat on the porch. She
couldn’t wait to experience as much as she could before she went
back to New York.

As Ash approached the front door, a young
woman opened the door and welcomed Ash into the lodge, directing
her toward the front of the large room where the reception desk was
located. Ash walked into the breathtaking room and was welcomed
with the smell of wood burning in the largest fireplace she had
ever seen. The fireplace was made of stone and stretched halfway
across the wall. The scent of cinnamon tickled her nose as she
closed her eyes, smelling the stimulating scents. She was next in
line as the receptionist greeted her and welcomed her to the
Meadowland Lodge. She informed Ash that she could sign in for the
law enforcement convention in the next room. It didn’t take Ash
long because she had already preregistered and faxed all the
information prior to her arrival. She gave Ash the key to her room
and informed her that her luggage would be waiting for her when she
arrived to her room. After thanking her, Ash turned around, and
walked toward the area designated for the convention.

Excerpt from Meridian Warriors: Xander &
Des

Meridian Warriors Book One

By Jana Leigh & Zack Collins

“
We are losing the battle with the Hopis,
they have powerful weapons, and I fear soon they will break through
our defenses, no matter what we do,” the King said to
Xander.

“”
Their numbers are too many, no matter
how many Warriors I have; we will not defeat them. Sir, we should
think of evacuation,” Xander said.

Xander was the leader of the Warriors, he
was the one the King went to for military strategies, and so far,
in this battle they had done well. Partly because they were
underwater and the Hopis didn’t know how to fight underwater, but
fighting was not what they wanted—it was the water. And they had
finally found a way to begin draining the planet.

“
Sir, our planet is being sucked dry from
its resources. Our greatest protection from others was our water.
We have lived hidden from everyone for millennia. The Hopis have
developed a way to steal the water from our surface,” Xander
explained. “There is a large ship on the farthest side of the
planet, which they are using to exact the water. Every day it goes
down further and further, soon we will not be able to
hide.”

They lived in a huge force field built
around the ships their ancestors arrived to the planet in. It was
amazing. They built homes, buildings, and businesses as they moved
out of their ships. They grew food, learned to live underwater, and
flourished in the new environment.

The Meridians were an intelligent species,
and their technology was advanced. They found in their travels that
many of the other species were eager to buy and learn what the
Meridians were more than happy to teach and sell.

According to the scripts, they evolved over
time to adapt to their surroundings. The Meridians were known for
their shifting ability. When in the water their legs changed into
one long tail with scales that allowed them to swim and hunt
underwater.

The Hopis were people from another planet
only two light years from them, they were vermin. While traveling
the universe, they found their planet, Meridian. Meridian was a
small planet whose surface was entirely covered in water. At first,
the Hopis didn’t bother the planet because it didn’t seem
inhabited. The Hopis planet was inhibited and they thought they
could just use the water resources for their own, coming back every
few years and filling their tanks with water.

When they discovered by accident through
their defense field that there were inhabitants on the planet—the
attacks began. They wanted the water for their own, along with the
Meridian’s technology.

For thirty years, Xander led the Warriors in
protecting their home planet. However, the Hopis would not give up.
Through many prisoner interrogations, they learned the Hopis home
planet had dried up a century ago, sending its inhabitants into
space to find water for their people. They thought they hit the
payload with Meridian—only to find out that Xander and his people
were there.

They wanted the water, but when they found
some of the technology the Meridian had, they wanted that too. The
Hopis were brutal in their attack, Xander grimaced a little as he
thought about the torture many of his men succumbed to. “Sir, what
can we do?”
Xander asked.

Rolf, the Leader, and large Warrior himself,
said, “We must gather the ships. One of our men discovered a planet
in the early stages of development, if we land in their waters, we
could stay hidden for many years. It is our only hope.”

Xander led the evacuation, they tried to
keep it a secret from the Hopis but of course, they found out. The
day they all left their home planet, Xander thought they’d planned
the escape to perfection. The only thing their leader didn’t
consider was the Hopis in their greed to obtain
everything—destroyed the planet while they were still too close.
Xander and his men’s ship was the only one to escape the blast. The
ship held fifty-two men, no women, and no children—they were
stagnant. Left to survive on a strange planet without the benefit
of companionship.

They plotted the course for Earth and landed
in the body of water, which is now called the Pacific Ocean. The
planet was in its early stages of growth, so the men stayed
underwater all the time in its early years. They discovered they
were still able to shift into their Meridian form when they entered
the water. Their legs disappeared and a long, large tail fin
appeared with brilliant colors, showing their ranking in the
Meridian City.

Slowly over time, they discovered that most
of the men were mates, and were just missing their female. Xander
always figured it had to have been the rest of the race being
destroyed that triggered their mating instincts with the only
survivors. Xander and Des had been friends since childhood, and
they never felt the pull until one day while they were swimming in
the ocean.

It was amazing to have a large area to
swim in, their planet was much smaller than Earth, they could have
swam their entire planet in two days, but Earth, hell
it
took more than a week, and that was if they swam steady the whole
time.

The group of men knew their limitations;
they needed materials from the surface to help them live.

They lived in the ship they escaped on for a
long time. It took their brilliant Warrior technology man to slowly
create a shield that expanded and formed into a large bubble-like
barrier between them and the surrounding water. It was similar to
their own planet; however, Earth’s water had a different
compound—salt. Meridian had not had salt in their water, so it took
a while for Cash’s mate, Rosul, to create a new barrier bubble. Now
they had approximately a five-mile city built to accommodate
them.

Over the years they went to the surface and
discovered they could shift above the water and search for
materials. When finished, they could reenter the water and shift
for the return to their underwater city. They also discovered the
Warriors could only stay above on the land for about seven rises of
the sun before they began to get sick. They needed to be in the
water to survive now.

A surprise source of help came when the men
rose from the ocean one night only to find a ship of Pirates
waiting for them. The battle lasted only briefly as the Warriors
overcame the men from the ship. Then a bargain was struck, and had
been in place ever since.

The humans developed and evolved, although
the Meridian had not wanted to interfere, they did feel that since
they had come to Earth to survive, they owed the humans something.
Xander and the others began letting some of the technology surface
with them. A few well-placed ideas—in the right minds—had allowed
the humans to develop as well.

Xander also felt the need to protect the
humans. They did not want what happened to their home planet to
happen to Earth as well. They sent out a tracking beacon, and they
could tell when another race moved too close. Some of them were
harmless, although some were not. Therefore, they did what they had
to do in order to protect the humans.

Around a hundred years ago, the Hopis
discovered Earth, and although they could not completely protect
the humans from them, they did help deter them. The Warriors set
out to kill any of the Hopis that came to Earth to scout; however,
it wasn’t until fifty years ago they found out, through
interrogation, the leader of the Hopis searched for them. For some
reason the man had vowed to find and destroy the last of the
Meridian, the Meridian Council all assumed it was because the Hopis
didn’t want it to get out to some of the other species what they
had done.

So far, they had been lucky, they avoided
their detection every time, although Xander knew that someday they
would not be so lucky, there were too many of them and the Hopis
were sending more scouts. They had probably figured out the
Warriors were here since many of their scouts never returned.

Rosul made only one entrance to the city,
and only a Meridian would be able to enter. Rosul embedded the
entrance doorway to recognize their blood markers. Anything else
trying to pass through the doorway would be trapped and if not
allowed in, thrown back out into the ocean after a certain amount
of time. Fish and other creatures sometimes wandered into their
passageway, which saved them from going out to find food.

The entrance was remarkably well hidden, as
was their city. Over time, with the development of the planet, rock
formations shifted and Cash used them to incorporate the city. On
the far side of the city was a lake, Meridian made of course, but
they kept it well stocked with fish now. However, to leave the
city, they had to dive into the lake and pass through a rock
tunnel. Their doorway worked both ways, except anything entering
had to be accompanied by a Meridian. If not, it or they were
killed.

They developed a Meridian Council just as
they had on their home planet. Xander was the leader, but the
Council was also in charge. They made the laws of their underwater
land and everyone obeyed them.

Xander stood on the balcony and felt his male
mate enter the room behind him. He smiled and waited. Des was late;
he was probably training the rest of the Warriors with the new toys
that Cash developed. They would do well when they had to go to the
surface and blend in.

“Xan?” Des yelled as he walked back into
their home. The home was traditionally decorated in their home
planet’s décor. When they barely escaped the planet’s destruction
with the ship, they at least planned ahead of time and put their
personal belonging aboard since they knew they would no longer be
able to return home.

The bold colors of red and blue adorned the
furniture along with the huge pillows on the floor, while the wall
held pictures of their lost planet, and the families they would
never forget. It was hard, even after all this time, to know they
had lost so much all because the Hopis wanted to have what they
had.

“Des, here,” Xander said and looked at his
mate closely. The training had been rough; his mate had marks on
his shoulders and arms where the new weapon had been used on him.
Xander hoped the other new toys were useful.

Des smiled at him arrogantly and bowed his
head. Even though Des was his mate, he insisted on the formal
greeting, after that though, Des walked to him and kissed him
passionately. Xander pulled his mate’s long, thick, black hair that
was tied behind his back with a traditional wrap from their planet,
angling his head so he would be able to get the most out of his
mate’s kiss.

They were large, tall men, both leaders, and
both dominant. Sometimes both of them wondered how they were ever
paired together. The Gods truly had a sense of humor. Xander was
the leader of the city they lived in, Des was his Second, and they
were a force to be reckoned with when challenged.

Standing well over six foot, Des had black
hair and Xander had white. They were opposites in looks and
demeanor. Xander was Alpha all the way. He dominated every room he
was in, where Des was a bit lighter and had a lot more humor
according to him. Xander would shake his head and laugh every time
his mate made the statement.